Editor’s
Note: This is an oldie, but a goodie. And we were inspired to post it after the
story was forwarded via email. We don’t know the original author of this
version, but they’ve done a good job so we’ve decided to publish it as is. A
little research dug up the original Washington Post article (titled
“Pearls Before Breakfast”, for which the author, Gene Weingarten won
the Pulitzer this past year) and experiment that it’s based on, which you can
find here with accompanying video, and it is, in fact, a true story. We highly
recommended reading the entire thing — an excerpt would not do it’s breadth
and coverage justice. We don’t know the original author of this version, but
they’ve done a good job so we’ve decided to publish it as is. It’s a powerful and
beautiful message — but most importantly, its a good one to keep in mind as
you go about your day-to-day life. We hope it inspires you to read the whole
story or — at the very least — to stop and listen.

A man
sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was
a cold, December morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of
people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3
minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his
pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4
minutes later:

The
violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without
stopping, continued to walk.

6
minutes:

A young
man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and
started to walk again.

10
minutes:

A
3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped
to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued
to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several
other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move
on quickly.

45
minutes:

The
musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short
while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man
collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He
finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor
was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell,
one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate
pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two
days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in
Boston and the seats average $100.00 each.

This is
a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized
by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste
and priorities of people.  The questions
raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive
beauty? Do we stop to
appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One
possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we
do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the
world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we
missing?